Byron and his colleague Zeti work at Genetic Variation, a lab in Zulia, Venezuela with unusual government latitude. Their director Giorgo Mezzatti has been running experiments well outside normal boundaries. Experiment number 131 shows something different: stable vital signs, nitrogen-breathing lungs, and the ability to reproduce through saliva contact with other specimens. Giorgo names it Varily and considers it a triumph. Byron and Zeti are considerably less comfortable with the results — especially when they realize that of the three specimens they believed they had, only two can now be accounted for.